Ken
Ken Masters is a video game character created by Capcom. He is one of the main characters from the Street Fighter series of fighting games alongside Ryu, having made an appearances in all major incarnations of the series. History Street Fighter series Ken made his first appearance in the original Street Fighter released in 1987. The character's name was originally spelled in Japanese as 拳 (Ken), which is the kanji character for fist, although Capcom dropped this in subsequent games, spelling his name in katakana instead (ケン). Ken is described as a former sparring partner, best friend and rival of the main character, Ryu, who trained under the same master (a character whose identity would later be fleshed out as Gouken). Within the actual game, Ken is for all intents and purpose a clone of Ryu controlled by the second player during competitive matches, with the only distinguishing aspects being that Ken wears a red karate gi, has blond hair and fights barefoot (in the original game, Ryu wears red slippers). The single-player tournament can only be played with Ken after the second player defeats the first player in a two-player match. Ken and Ryu, along with former final boss Sagat, would be the only characters from the original Street Fighter to return in the game's true sequel, Street Fighter II, first released in 1991. In Street Fighter II, Ken is invited to participate in the World Warrior tournament by Ryu, with Ken having already moved away from Japan to live in America. In Ken's ending, he ends up marrying his girlfriend Eliza. Street Fighter II was a breakaway hit for Capcom, leading to the production of revised editions of the same game which included Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting in 1992, Super Street Fighter II in 1993 and Super Turbo in 1994, which all follow the same plot. Numerous spinoff products were made as well during the game's popularity: when Capcom licensed Hasbro to produced a line of action figures, Capcom were forced to give Ken the surname "Masters" to distinguish the character from Mattel's Ken Carson character from the Barbie to toyline. The full name Ken Masters would be used in the animated Street Fighter II movie and in the Street Fighter II V series before being canonized in the games. An all-new Street Fighter game would not be released until 1995, Street Fighter Alpha was released. Plotwise, the game is a prequel to the Street Fighter II games which fleshed out the established Street Fighter II characters, as well as reintroduced characters from the original Street Fighter and the beat-em-up Final Fight. Alpha features a younger Ken, who is searching for Ryu, having recently won the first "World Warrior" tournament in the events of the original Street Fighter. In Ken's ending in the original Street Fighter Alpha, he defeats Ryu and heads back to America, where he meets his future girlfriend and wife Eliza. Street Fighter Alpha would be followed by its own line of sequels: Street Fighter Alpha 2, which follows the same plot as in the original Alpha (with a revised ending for Ken); and Street Fighter Alpha 3, which takes place after the events in the first two games. In Alpha 3, Ken is featured in the numerous characters' storylines within the game. Street Fighter III (released in 1997), features an older Ken, who is now married to Eliza and has a son with her named Mel. He also takes a young student named Sean under his wing. Street Fighter III was followed by 2nd Impact released during the same year and 3rd Impact in 1999. Ken, along with Ryu, are seen sparring with each other in the trailer to the upcoming Street Fighter IV, although both characters' roles in the game are unknown at this point.2 Ken was confirmed as a playable character for Street Fighter IV on December 6, 2007.3 The story of IV will be set between Street Fighter II and III. Other Games In 1990, Capcom produced an action game for the Nintendo Entertainment System titled Street Fighter 2010: The Final Fight . The Japanese version of the game starred an original character named Kevin Striker, a cyborg policeman who fought against alien creatures in the future. When Capcom released 2010 in North America, the main character's identity was changed from Kevin to Ken, with the game's story rewritten to imply that he was the same Ken from the original Street Fighter. Other than that, the game has little or no plot ties to the original Street Fighter and the game itself is not recognized as part of the canonical Street Fighter series. Outside the mainstream Street Fighter games, Ken appears in 3D form in the Street Fighter EX games, in his Alpha incarnation in X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter and Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes and in a new form based on his Street Fighter II incarnation in Capcom vs. SNK and Capcom vs. SNK 2. He also appears in the arcade game Street Fighter: The Movie produced by Incredible Technologies, which Capcom later adapted for the home console market, and in SNK vs. Capcom: SVC Chaos by SNK Playmore, where he has an alter-ego named Violent Ken. Appearance Ken is most easily recognized by his sparring gloves (yellow in the Alpha Series, red or brown elsewhere) and bright red karate gi with the arms ripped off, similar to Ryu's (Capcom has said that a red gi was chosen to stand out and to reflect his more flashy style of fighting). Unlike Ryu however, Ken's gi shows less wear and tear, this difference was first shown in Street Fighter III and will continue in Street Fighter IV. His hair is blonde (some sources indicate that his hair may in fact be dyed; evidenced that some of his sprites have black eyebrows) and has long eyebrows. He wears a black belt at his waist and fights barefoot. In the Street Fighter Alpha series, he had longer hair that he tied back with a red ribbon into a ponytail. The official explanation for the loss of the ribbon is that he gave it to Ryu to wear during the events of Street Fighter Alpha 2 (as stated in Ken's own ending); Ryu was distracted during his fight with Ken because he had just fought Akuma, and ended up losing. Ken gave Ryu the headband to remind him of their fight. Gameplay Ken mainly focuses on the Shoryuken move, to the point where his Shoryukens set the opponent on fire. Ken's Tatsumaki Senpuukyaku does not allow him to dodge projectiles at the start of the spin, but spins faster, allows him to hit his opponent up to five times. Ken's Hadouken attacks are less concentrated than Ryu's, but Ken's Shoryuken has more range and does more damage than Ryu's. Special Attacks *'Hadoken - '''Ken's fireball won't travel a full-screen's distance, and the Hard version goes further than Light Punch. Ken's air version of this attack comes out at a diagonally down-towards angle similar to Akuma's Zanku Hadoken. *'Shoryuken - A fierce rising uppercut in a spiraling motion with some horizontal movement in which Ken rockets upwards whilst performing a spinning uppercut that knocks his opponent to the ground. Ken can do this in the air, so you can actually use it as a jump in attack, but it's best used as an anti-air move. The hard punch version has more range and does more damage. *'Tatsumaki Senpukyaku - '''Ken flies at a diagonally up-towards angle, so it can actually be used as an anti air move. He hits multiple times very fast, and the hard kick version has more range and takes off more health. *'Barrel Roll - '''Ken quickly rolls along the ground, very similar to his roll move in Street Fighter Alpha 2. If you use this from close range and your opponent isn't in the corner, you can get to their other side. Assist Attacks Hyper Combos *Shoryu-Reppa - Ken's signature super attack, he performs a series of three Shoryukens that progressively cause more and more damage to an opponent each time they are hit. *'''Shippu Jinraikyaku - '''Ken does a bunch of kicks with his feet on fire and ends with a Hurricane Kick. Mashing the Kick buttons will give you additional hits and damage. *Shinryuken - This attack was developed by Ken, the only user of this move. It is a powerful Shoryuken that corkscrews vertically into the air, causing a vacuum effect that sucks in the opponent and strikes him multiple times. Violent Ken Violent Ken is an alternate version of Ken that appears in SVC Chaos: SNK vs. Capcom. He was inspired by the Brainwashed Ken depicted in Street Fighter II: The Animated Movie, which M. Bison induced a considerable amount of Psycho Power to transform Ken into a killing machine. Though Brainwashed Ken has little to do with the Satsui no Hadou, Ken, while fighting against this form in game, wonders if, deep down, he desires this. However, Violent Ken also used purple flames instead of regular ones in his Shoryuken, which is a feature of Akuma's Hadokens and Shoryukens from the Marvel vs. Capcom series, and a pillar of energy appeared at the end of his Exceed move, which is a feature of Rugal's DMs from The King of Fighters series. Trivia *Ken is referenced in Ryu's ending in Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds as when you see Ryu going up to fight Iron Fist in the second picture you see on a board in the background "Up Next: Ken vs. Mr X", the latter being a Marvel villain whose main power is using telepathy to predict his opponent's next move and counter it accordingly. During the Dark Reign year-long storyline, Mr. X was a member of Norman Osborn's second team of Thunderbolts. *He is the actual rival of Cyclops. *In Street Fighter IV, '''Super Street Fighter IV and the upcoming Street Fighter X Tekken, Ken is voiced by Reuben Langdon, who voices Dante in Marvel vs. Capcom 3, Devil May Cry: The Animated Series, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening and Devil May Cry 4. Langdon also did the motion capture for Dante in DMC3 and DMC4, and the motion capture for Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 5 (as well as the voice of Dave Johnson) and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. His Japanese voice in the games since Street Fighter III is Yuji Kishi, for whom Ken is his most recognizable voice role. *To compensate for Ken's absence in Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, Ryu can alternate into a "Ken" mode where he gets faster, his Shoryuken causes multi-hits and has flaming properties, and he uses Ken's Hyper Combos instead of his own. However, the damage output to his other moves is lower. In addition, one of Ryu's alternate colors in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 (another game from which Ken is absent) is patterned after Ken: red gi, blond hair and yellow gloves. Artwork 349233-ken_mshvs.jpg|Marvel Super Heroes vs Street Fighter Ken_Masters_(XvSF).JPG|X-Men vs Street Fighter Marvel vs Capcom 3 Ken mr X and Iron fist.png|Ken's name appear in Ryu's ending in "MVC3"|link=Ken's name appear in Ryu's ending in "Marvel vs. Capcom 3" imagesCA1WO09V.jpg|Ken Masters 1338931-ken_mvc2_action.png|Ken in mvc2 Sprites Also See Ken's moves in Marvel vs Capcom 2: New Age of Heroes Category:Characters Category:MvC Characters Category:MvC2 Characters Category:Capcom Characters Category:Street Fighter Characters Category:Good Alignment Category:Male Characters Category:Shoto Characters Category:Ken